1: Remove excess fat of chicken, rinse with cold water and pat dry. Place all ingredients of Ingredient 2) in a plastic bag (Picture 1), mix well. Place the chicken inside the bag, seal the bag and shake well (Picture 2). Store the chicken in a fridge for 24 hours.
2: Place all ingredients of Ingredient 3) on aluminum foil lined baking sheet, mix well the ingredients. Place a rack over the smoking ingredients (Picture 3). Rinse chicken with cold water and pat dry, place on the rack (Picture 4).

3: Wrap baking sheet with large piece aluminum foil, and make sure seal well (Picture 5).
4: Place the baking sheeting in the preheated oven and bake at 400F for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5: Remove from the oven, let it cool, and cut into small pieces before serving.

I made the hen twice over the holiday and brought to parties. As usual, it was a hit, even though the second time I forgot to put in the 13-spice powder. Thank you, Maomaomom!

I recommened this recipe to an American colleague who was asking me what I’d normally do, turkey or traditional Chinese dishes, for Thanksgiving. Here’s what Curtious, who’s very interested in Chinese language and culture, had to say after the holiday:

“I cooked the ‘Chinese style smoked’ Cornish game hens from the maomaomom.com site you recommended. I didn’t have any ’13 spice’ powder, but I had ’5 spice’ powder, so maybe mine hens were only 5/13 as good as they could have been, but I think they were excellent. The best part was that I used the drippings in the pan plus some flour and milk to make gravy, which had a wonderful anise flavor.

“I used Pu-er tea scraped off from one of the bricks of Pu-er tea I was given in China during one of the classes I taught there.”

I am a little confused about the drippings your 老美粉丝 friend mentioned. How did he/she get drippings from this recipe? With flour and sugar on the roasting pan, my drippings were totally soaked up. Did I do something wrong?

I’ve become one of your faithful followers, after trying a few of your recipes. You are the best!

However, I had problems with this recipe. My chicken skin was not crispy like yours at all. My chicken looked a little like Chinese soy sauce chicken with soft moist skin. I followed your recipe to a T. Any idea what I did wrong? Thanks a bunch!